MEDIA COURTHOUSE — The victim of a 2013 Memorial Day shooting tearfully described how her former partner allegedly fired a handgun into her car while she was sitting next to the couple’s 11-year-old son, striking her five times.

“I sort of had this whole conversation with myself in my head like, ‘She has a gun, that can’t be a gun, there’s no way that can be a real gun,’” said Margaret Grover. “And then I think she started to shoot.”

Grover told Assistant District Attorney Mary Mann that the person holding the gun was her former partner, Lauren Patricia Daly, 41, a doctor at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del.

Daly has been incarcerated since the alleged attempted homicide outside her home in the 200 block of North Middletown Road on the evening of May 27, 2013.

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Grover, 50, who also works in health care, said the couple began dating in 1999 and soon moved in together. They have two children together: a son, now 12, and a daughter, 10. Grover said she carried their son to term through insemination and Daly carried their daughter.

Each woman had primary custody of the child they had birthed following the couple’s split in April 2011, said Grover. Each was also granted some visitation rights through an August 2012 order, but Grover said Daly almost never exercised that right with regard to their son and had told Grover he was not welcome at her home.

“She just was never particularly fond of him,” said Grover. “She made many disparaging remarks about him. ... She called him a ‘nasty little boy,’ she called him ‘Satan’s spawn.’ She referred to him in very derogatory terms.”

Grover also claimed there were numerous problems with visiting her daughter, especially related to her never having a large bag with her for hockey practice on Wednesdays, when Grover picked her up from school.

These problems led to an agreement in early May 2013 that pickup and drop-off of the children would take place at “curbside,” with one parent and significant other remaining in the car while the other parent and significant other remained in the house, according to attorney emails presented in court Monday.

When Grover went to drop off her daughter on the day of the shooting, however, she said Daly’s partner was outside. Grover said she parked in front of the house, but well back from where the woman was doing some yard work.

Grover said she turned around after going to give her daughter a kiss goodbye in the back seat and saw Daly standing at the front of her car on the passenger side. Daly demanded to speak to their son, according to the victim, but Grover told her to call instead. The daughter had meanwhile exited the car and was standing with Daly’s partner, according to Grover.

Daly then allegedly slapped the front of the car. After Grover looked over at their son, she said she looked back to see Daly holding a black and silver handgun.

“(Our son) was sitting next to me and I just kind of pushed him down and laid myself across him,” said Grover. “(I heard) five shots. I counted them. I’m an ER nurse, it would be embarrassing if I didn’t count them.”

Once the shooting ended, Grover said she sat up and heard her son tell her to get out of there. She said she threw the car into drive and probably floored the gas pedal, steering around the space where her daughter and Daly’s partner had been standing.

Mann played a taped 911 call Grover placed while en route to Riddle Memorial Hospital, in which she identified Daly as the shooter and told police where the shooting had occurred. She was later transferred to Crozer-Chester Medical Center and was treated for 10 wounds, including five gunshot wounds.

Grover said she was struck in the face, chest and abdomen, which required surgery and follow-up treatment. She still has the scars from the shooting and said she also continues to suffer nerve damage in her right arm.

Daly, represented by defense attorney Mike Malloy, is charged with two counts each of attempted homicide, simple assault, and reckless endangerment, as well as four counts of aggravated assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

The trial is expected to continue today before Judge Michael F.X. Coll.

About the Author

Alex Rose covers court proceedings for the Daily Times. He also writes a weekly science column. Reach the author at arose@delcotimes.com
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